WHERE OCEAN AND IDENTITY MEET, A DEEPER STORY OF RELATIONSHIP, RESPONSIBILITY AND PRESENCE UNFOLDS

stick figures singing and playing guitar
Two men sitting on rocks by the ocean, smiling at sunset, with a pier in the background.

ABOUT THE FILM
Length: 90 minutes
Status: In Production
Primary Locations: Western Australia, Indonesia
Featuring: Jono Allen & Tom Cannon
Director: Lisa Thomas
Producers: Cassandra Hampson, Lisa Thomas & Honny Palayukan
Director of Photography: Kyle Roepke
Production Company: Morii Media Productions

In the Wake of Giants is a feature documentary that follows ocean storytellers and conservationists Jono Allen and Tom Cannon as they journey across the Indo-Pacific exploring humanity’s relationship with the ocean, and questioning what true protection of the natural world really looks like.

Moving between the remote coastlines of Australia and Indonesia, the film immerses audiences in communities whose lives remain connected to the sea. Through intimate encounters with marine life, local traditions, and evolving conservation efforts, Jono and Tom are forced to confront the contradictions within their own beliefs about tourism, storytelling, conservation, and human impact.

The film explores a growing tension between connection and intrusion, asking whether the very act of bringing people closer to nature can sometimes place it at greater risk.

In the Wake of Giants invites audiences into emotionally and culturally complex spaces where conservation, identity, tradition, and survival intersect. In places where ancestral ways of life continue alongside increasing outside influence, the film observes communities navigating questions of continuity, responsibility, and change.

The film is not about villains or heroes, but about people trying to protect what they love while grappling with the consequences of a rapidly changing world.

Through cinematic underwater imagery, observational storytelling, and personal reflection, In the Wake of Giants becomes both a journey across oceans and an inward examination of our relationship with the wild places we admire.

  • Director: Lisa Thomas
    Director of Photography: Kyle Roepke
    Featuring: Jono Allen & Tom Cannon
    Producer: Cassandra Hampson
    Co-Producer: Honny Palayukan (Western Australia + Indonesia)
    Production Company: Morii Media Productions

    The film is made in collaboration with local contributors and community knowledge holders, with each community guiding how its stories, knowledge and cultural practices are represented on screen.

  • The film stays close to people and events as they unfold. Conversations continue, perspectives shift and contradictions are allowed to remain unresolved. Our aim is not to present conservation as a single answer, but to observe what it means in different lives and circumstances.

    Local contributors and community knowledge holders help determine how their stories, knowledge and cultural practices are represented. Their guidance shapes what is filmed, what is shared and what remains private.

    Running through the film is a difficult question: when does connection become intrusion? By following what happens when outsiders enter, film and draw attention to a place, In the Wake of Giants asks audiences to consider the responsibility that comes with wanting to experience or protect something that is not theirs.

  • Status: In Production
    A substantial portion of filming has been completed, with further production planned as the story develops. The edit is underway in Australia, where picture, sound and music will be shaped together to create an immersive sense of movement and place.

    Rather than following a conventional problem/solution structure, the film traces an internal shift. Encounters challenge assumptions, certainty gives way to doubt, and questions of connection, conservation and responsibility become more complicated as the journey unfolds.